OPINION

This Thanksgiving season, here are 3 steps for overcoming partisan divides

Abdullah T. Antepli and Ray Starling
Guests columnists

Have you ever listened to someone you disagreed with and realized they actually had some sensible things to say? We each had that humbling experience many times over the past year while considering North Carolina’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic as part of the North Carolina Leadership Forum.

As a former principal agriculture advisor to President Trump and current general counsel for the North Carolina Chamber and president of its legal institute, Ray spent the pandemic helping thousands of businesses protect workers and serve customers safely amid a global crisis.

As a Duke University professor and a known Muslim leader in national politics around interfaith relations and policy, Abdullah’s focused during the pandemic on helping his students feel safe and connected as they navigated remote learning and instability on many fronts. 

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Our paths crossed at the Forum, a Duke University-hosted program that brings together state and local leaders from a variety of backgrounds to explore concerns and values related to a specific issue of importance to the state. The most recent session focused on the state’s response to the pandemic; others have focused on jobs, energy, and education, to name a few.

The group convenes leaders of communities from the mountains to the coast —Republicans and Democrats, elected officials, educators, business leaders and nonprofit advocates. Its philosophy is that if leaders can learn to respect each other even when we disagree, and value constructive engagement to address problems, we can begin to reduce the division we see in so many parts of our society.

Ray was able to explain how businesses were voluntarily taking measures to protect their workers and customers but were also worried about their bottom lines and keeping people employed. When Ray listened to the public health concerns of others, he left better equipped to help his staff and members understand and address public perception. 

Abdullah, who has lived in North Carolina for 14 years, learned about his neighbors in a way that he has not been able to do in any other venue. He broke through the caricatures of ideological division he had seen on the news and instead saw people from every part of the state making efforts to help their community and acting with compassion.

Here are a few lessons we have taken away from our experience that we hope our fellow North Carolinians can apply in their own lives:

First, it is important to talk about topics where we disagree and try to understand where the disagreement is coming from. For example, in the Forum, there was disagreement about how much government should regulate public health compliance at businesses, but agreed about the importance of many safety measures that would protect everyone. Talking in detail helped us defuse misconceptions and brainstorm possible responses we could support.

Second, it is critical to build trusted relationships with people who hold different views if we want to make progress on important topics. Several participants told us that they have reached out to each other to collaborate on bipartisan projects, provide one another career advice, and to better understand the other person’s point of view.

Third, leaders need to work constructively — and visibly — with each other regardless of party, race, ethnicity, gender or where we live. This summer, a bipartisan Georgetown Institute Battleground Poll found that voters rank “division in the country” as the most important issue facing them personally. The public is looking to its leaders to behave better than the polarization we see so often in the media.

Last month, the NC Leadership Forum convened a new group to talk about how we can improve health outcomes in the state. Our first meeting left us hopeful and inspired that if we put the time into getting to know each others’ values and focus on understanding each other, we can make progress on another critical topic for all North Carolinians.

Abdullah T. Antepli
Ray Starling

Abdullah T. Antepli is associate professor of the practice in the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University. Ray Starling is general counsel for the NC Chamber; he previously served as chief of staff to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue.